Launch of CISCO's new SMB Strategy - CISCO Start

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.
with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management Services

The recent Deloitte connected small business report declared that the growth of digital technology in Small business could potentially equate to 50% grow in revenue and 50% more revenue per employee in the sector. Presently small businesses are sitting at only 11%; the basic level where they may only have a website. The growing adoption of cloud based software will assist with this exponential growth.

I was invited to the launch of CISCO’s new dedicated SMB strategy on 12th July. Normally when we hear about these things we expect the larger companies to be literally eating smaller ones in their attempt to grab the a chunk of the small business market share (once they realise how lucrative we are). But in this case, they’re recognising the role of small business as the relationship builders, the collaborative force that we are, building daily to improve our reputation, networking and referrals in our own small business community. And the IT Management Consultants are an important component of this CISCO strategy.

Cisco wants to be a technology partner. This new portfolio of hardware, software and cloud products offers simple, secure and reliable enterprise-class end-to-end solutions. What does that meant to those of us who aren’t IT Gurus? It’s basically a one stop shop for hardware and software to support you on your rocky IT road. Interestingly they have rolled this out using locally based IT consultant to deliver it to us as small businesses. And that’s what I’m exciting about. The fact that a large company is recognising small business’ strengths as a partner.

The solutions have been designed to give SMBs high levels of protection, automation and efficacy, which are fundamental to survival, growth and expansion.  There is hardware of course which will be available through retailers like JB HiFi and a great new product called CISCO Umbrella strategy which protects the user against webpages which are deemed to be unsafe or from a particular region who is considered dangerous. They’re also developing partnerships with the likes of Amazon as a marketplace and working with telecommunications companies to develop the resilient infrastructure we so desperately need.

The SMB world is growing and it’s great to see a large corporate like CISCO sit up and notice the power of our market. Not only using us for our market share but collaborating also.

In this interview we hear from :

Ken Boal, Vice President of Cisco ANZ - discuss the growth and roadmap of Cisco’s Small and Medium Business product portfolio, the importance of digital transformation for Australian SMBs and the ongoing cyber security trends and threats that affect them.

Peter Strong, CEO of Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) - to discuss the current state and future of SMBs in Australia, underpinned by the adoption of technology.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that has been making the Internet work since 1984. Our people, products, and partners help society securely connect and seize tomorrow's digital opportunity today. Discover more at newsroom.cisco.com and

To find out more go to their website: https://www.cisco.com/c/en_au/solutions/small-business.html